ELYRIA, Ohio — A police detective admitted to jurors Tuesday he and a partner lied to capital murder defendant Nicole Diar about the cause of her son's death and the state of his remains in order to get her to confess to accidentally killing the child.

In a three-hour videotaped interrogation shown to jurors, Lorain police detectives John Garcia and Albert Rivera tell Diar that her 4-year-old son Jacob died from a "wallop" to the back of his head, that only exposed areas of the boy's body were burned by a fire that raged through their house, and that a nationally recognized expert examined the child and came to similar conclusions.

All three assertions, though false, were necessary "investigative techniques" designed to pressure Diar into admitting she killed her child accidentally and then set fire to her house to cover up the fatal mistake, Garcia said.

"You admit you used techniques that didn't always give her truthful information?" defense attorney Jack Bradley asked Garcia on cross-examination.

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"That's correct," he said.

During the interrogation, a crying Diar denies that she or anyone she knows killed the boy or set the fire.

"I did not harm my son. He was my life. I would give my life for him," Diar tells the detectives.

Diar is accused of killing Jacob and then dousing her house with gasoline and setting it on fire to destroy any evidence. She is charged with aggravated murder, arson and eight other counts for the incident and faces the death penalty if found guilty of murder.

Last week, Lorain County Coroner Paul Matus testified that Jacob's body was so badly burned that it was impossible to accurately determine the exact cause of death. But because the child's lungs showed no signs of smoke inhalation or traces of carbon monoxide, Matus ruled the child's death a homicide.

Matus also told jurors that Jacob had severe bruising under his skull, but that the wounds were caused by the extreme heat of the fire, not by human hands.

Interrogating Diar

During the interview, Garcia and Rivera tell a distraught Diar that her son died from wounds to his head.

"I think we had an accident here. I think the fire may have been the result of another accident. I think the accident may have happened in the bathroom," Rivera tells Diar.

The detectives also ask Diar about her sexual activities and at one point suggest that she might be covering for a man cheating on his wife.

"There's a third party there. Maybe he's a married man and you don't want to complicate his life," Rivera suggests.

"I don't know what to tell you because I don't know what happened," Diar said.

Although Diar appeared to cry in the video, both detectives observed that she did not apparently shed any tears during the interview. Garcia and Rivera also question Diar about the number "21" on her hand, which she explained was a stamp from a bar she went to the previous night with her brother.

The prosecution is expected to rest early Wednesday afternoon. The defense has indicated it will present a brief case, possibly concluding by Thursday afternoon.

Court TV Extra is streaming the trial live on the Web.